


Giles Decides

by mrsredboots



Category: The Marlows - Antonia Forest
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-12-05 02:59:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11568912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrsredboots/pseuds/mrsredboots
Summary: Giles Marlow, about to be retired from the Navy, considers his future





	Giles Decides

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [antonia_forest_fanworks_2017](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/antonia_forest_fanworks_2017) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
>  
> 
> Giles and Trennels. I've always wondered what will happen when Giles comes home. Who will he displace from Trennels? Will he try and farm himself or will he have a farm manager? Will he retire from the Navy when he's quite old or will he leave early for any reason? Will he have a wife and family and what will they think about living at Trennels? Will Pam be supportive or secretly disapproving of the way he treats Rowan/Peter/whoever's running the farm? Will there be any tension between him and the other siblings?  
> I imagine him being initially rather hopeless at running the farm, unpopular with the farm workers and unwilling to ask for help from those who might know better; I also imagine his wife as not very happy. However, I would love to read someone else's take on this and would love to see how it all turns out - good or bad. No Do Not Wants.

The communiqué was quite clear. Commander Giles Marlow, RN, was going to have to retire, willy-nilly. He had known this was coming, but had applied, knowing it would probably not happen, for an extension of his service. However, not wishing to become a farmer appeared not to be on the list of acceptable reasons to continue, and, at the end of the month after his 45th birthday, he would be forced to go home.

“Hell’s bells and buckets of bloody blood!” he swore, as he read the communiqué.

“No joy?” asked his close friend and sometimes lover, Oliver Randall.

“None at all. So I shall have to go home, displace my ghastly brother, and spend my life sitting on a tractor or doing unspeakable things up cows’ behinds. And live in that ghastly house, falling down around my ears. With my mother. Oh God.”

“That bad?”

“Worse, I suspect! It wasn’t so bad going home on leave, back in the day, when the siblings were young and could dilute things a bit. I’d be the big hero, No 1 Son coming home on leave, with my little sisters hero-worshipping me and thinking I was the best thing since sliced bread.”

“Good grief, the poor little innocents!”

“I know, weren’t they! But, alas, they soon realised I had feet of clay, and they seem to have swung from hero-worship to loathing. Thankfully, none of them lives at home now – but on the other hand, that would dilute the effect of my dearest mother.....”

“Whom you also loathe? Why?”

“No, not loathe, that’s far too strong a word. The trouble is, she was so traumatised by her own mother, who was the sort of woman it was impossible to please. And this made her the kind of person who is far too eager to appear pleased. When my eldest sister got married to a man more than twice her age, a widower with three children, she just acted absolutely delighted, as if he would have been the very man she’d choose for her. When I came out, she again acted delighted, even though I know she felt really disappointed.”

“Yes, I can see living with her would be a strain. But must you?”

“I don’t see I’ve any other option. The place belongs to me – has done, ever since my father died. I’ve left my younger brother in charge so far, but I suppose I ought to take hold.”

“Is the brother doing a good job? And will he inherit when you die – after all, you aren’t about to produce an heir, so far as I know?”

“Yes, I suppose he is. And yes, he is my heir. What are you thinking? Should I just abdicate and leave it all to him?”

“Why not? I don’t quite know how it works, and you’d need to take legal advice, but if you made it over to him now, he would avoid most inheritance taxes as long as you live another seven years. And if he’s doing a great job and you don’t want it.... if it’s only duty making you feel you should take hold....”

“You know, that’s quite a thought. But what am I going to do? I can’t expect the estate to support me, even if it could. Plus I don’t want to sit on my arse all day doing nothing.”

“No, but you could get a job. Preferably the other end of the country. Look, come home with me to Manchester when we finish up here; that will give us some breathing space, and we can think about jobs and maybe take careers advice.”

In the end, it was simple. Peter Marlow leapt at his brother’s offer, which to him appeared almost too good to be true. Together, and not without some argument, the family decided that the big house was no longer viable, but should be sold, perhaps to be turned into flats, or perhaps even to be torn down and houses built on the site. Peter and his family were already living in the old farmhouse, which had been extensively modernised, and although the old cottages had long since been sold, the family were able to buy back one that unexpectedly came on the market for Mrs Marlow to live in.

Giles and Oliver set up house together in Manchester, where both found jobs working for the borough council. They seldom visited Trennels, “but we like to know that all the family is well and happy!”

 


End file.
